MOSCOW, July 22, Sergey Smyshlyaev. Head of the Ski Racing Federation Russia (FLGR) Elena Vyalbe, commenting on the refusal of accreditation for the 2024 Olympic Games to Sport journalists, said that the idiocy of the decisions of the European authorities is simply off scale.
Five journalists from the Russian news agency Sport, part of the international media group Rossiya Segodnya, were denied accreditation for the Olympic Games in Paris.
«»It's even funny! It seems to me that they are already afraid of themselves and their shadow. This once again proves the absurdity of the whole situation with the non-admission of Russian and Belarusian athletes. The press has also been attracted to them. Who are these people from the EU, what is their relationship to the IOC? As they say, it’s a sin to be offended by the poor and fools! The idiocy of their decisions is simply off the charts,” Vyalbe said.
The message from the organizing committee of the 2024 Games, attached to the same letters, states that the decision to refuse was made by the so-called Olympic Consulate, formed from members of the Ministries of the Interior of France, as well as Europe and Foreign Affairs.
Earlier, the head of the French Ministry of Internal Affairs, Gerald Darmanin, in an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche, said that his organization denied entry into the country “a large number of “journalists” who claimed to be covering the Games,” noting that “ Most of them were from Russia and Belarus, as well as a number of other countries.» Darmanen cited the threat of espionage and cyber attacks. The IOC, in response to a request, refused to comment on the actions of the French authorities.